Payment Cards for Patient Studies

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is seeking a qualified vendor to provide a secure, scalable, participant-friendly payment card program specifically designed to reimburse clinical trial participants for expenses such as travel, meals, parking, lodging, and time-related burdens. The program aims to replace outdated, manual reimbursement methods—like paper checks and site-level disbursements—with a modern electronic payment system to enhance participant satisfaction, improve retention, reduce administrative overhead for research sites, and ensure greater transparency, accuracy, and compliance. The selected vendor must deliver physical, virtual, and mobile payment cards branded via Visa or Mastercard, integrate via API with university systems, provide real-time dashboards with audit trails, offer multilingual customer support, and maintain strict adherence to HIPAA, PCI DSS, PA DSS, TX-RAMP Level II, and accessibility standards including WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Texas Accessibility Regulations. The vendor must also ensure robust fraud prevention, comprehensive reporting capabilities, and audit-ready documentation. The contract has an initial three-year term with potential for renewal, and performance may occur across multiple University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio facilities. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the Euna Procurement Portal by May 29, 2026, and failure to meet mandatory requirements such as HUB subcontracting compliance, criminal background screening for on-site personnel, prohibition of covered telecommunications equipment, and specific accessibility certifications will result in rejection. The evaluation process is based on a trade-off approach, weighing factors including technical adequacy (25 points), quality of service (25 points), cost (20 points), reputation (20 points), past relationship with the University (5 points), and exceptions to contract terms (5 points), totaling 100 points. The award is not based on lowest price but on overall advantage, and no guarantee of volume or minimum spend is provided. All vendors must certify compliance with Texas state laws on discrimination, environmental recycling, conflict of interest, and insurance coverage requirements including $1 million in commercial general liability and business auto liability. Payments to vendors will be processed via electronic funds transfer in accordance with the Texas Prompt Payment Act, and invoices must include detailed supporting documentation.